Vehicles may contain components such as engine components which may become particularly hot during operation. When these components are exposed to flammable substances such as engine oil the flammable substances may ignite and cause a fire within the vehicle.
In mining and construction operations, fire within a vehicle is particularly problematic and the fire must be extinguished quickly and safely. In particular, mining vehicles typically have large diesel motors and turbochargers which are sufficiently hot to ignite engine oil, fuel lines or other flammable substances which are exposed to the motors and/or turbochargers.
Accordingly, such mining vehicles are often fitted with a fire suppressant system. Typically, such systems include a series of fire suppressant delivery pipes which are fitted over and around at risk components of the vehicle. The series of fire suppressant delivery pipes may be connected to an internal source of pressurised fire suppressant via a flow controller. When a fire is detected, the flow controller is configured to release the internal source of pressurised fire suppressant into the delivery pipes which are arranged to deliver a spray of fire suppressant to the components of the vehicle that may be on fire.
A disadvantage of these systems is that the source of pressurised suppressant may become emptied before the fire has been fully extinguished. This may result in the fire reigniting and continuing to burn. Another disadvantage with these systems is that the system may fail.
Some fire suppressant systems may include an inlet nozzle fitted to the vehicle which may be connected to an external source of pressurised fire suppressant. However, this requires the vehicle operator or other person to connect the external source of fire suppressant to the inlet nozzle.
A disadvantage of these systems is that the vehicle operator or other person is required to physically connect the external source of pressurised suppressant to the inlet nozzle which may be particularly hazardous if the vehicle is on fire.
The invention described herein seeks to overcome the above disadvantages or at least provide a useful alternative.